Update 9-18-09:
I've had wonderful feedback from a number of folks and since much of that has been from those involved in making animations, there are some changes coming soon to make animations operate smoothly with the Lattice plugins. In addition to the animation updates, a number of additional 2D plugins have been converted to 3D. Stay tuned!
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It takes time to discover even a small percentage of what Apo can do with a set of plugins. But it doesn't take very long to realize that even with a significant number 3D enabled plugins, there isn't as much there as would be ideal.
Overall, I'm delighted with the 3D hack operation. I can get wonderful detail very accurately in stereo pairs. That's exciting. But a recent off-hand comment about what seems to be missing in Apo 3D, elicited the helpful creation by a friend on the Apophysis list of a plugin to fix that gaping hole in the process of 3D design.
The solution turned out to be extremely simple and the results have a profound impact on how 3D flames are designed! It got better... With a bit of help, I began writing plugins to enhance what is available to 3D designers! I started with modifying several 2D plugins that are already fun, but now they operate in 3D!
An irritating thing of the past has been the number of flames that stubbornly remain flat. All you see from a side view (Pitch=90) is a line. Some really interesting patterns just wouldn't pop into 3D without significant design changes.
Now I have a set of several 3D plugins written from scratch which force dimensional structure into those flat flames! No more struggle with trying all the 3D plugins only to see it stay flat! No more creating 3D shapes only to have something in the FX flatten it!
I'm sure you can deliberately flatten these too, but with these additional tools there are so many more ways to enjoy your designs and have several strategies available to give them full dimension.
Within a couple days I'll be posting more information about these plugins, what they do and how to use them along with a small collection of these new 3D tools.
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Mood:
Joy -
Listening to: Quietude of late night
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Reading: Math related websites
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Watching: Delightful new Apo designs
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Drinking: Alo Awaken
Hey, thanks for stopping by! I've been busy with "life" so haven't had much time to update things around dA, but a new bit of exploration and now plugin coding is about to change things.
The biggest issue with Apo 3D has been that it impossible to fully rotate a flame unless you use the camera controls for some actions. That results in a great difficulty getting stereo params for some views. A friend heard my comment and wrote a plugin to accomplish rotation of Z from a variation.
That simple plugin means that one can set Pitch=90 and leave it there. All rotations can be done with variations. Then the camera is -always- in an ideal orientation to get stereo parameters.
I'm currently refining my new plugins and getting them ready to post, as well as writing some new tutorial information.
Larry
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=Apophysis